# playout.video — full content corpus Generated: 2026-10-22T14:08:45.550Z Articles: 143 --- # Using the Overlay and Composition Editor URL: https://playout.video/help-center/overlays-and-editor/using-the-overlay-and-composition-editor Category: Overlays & Editor (kb) Tags: Tutorial, Overlays Add logos, text, captions, stickers, audio visualizers, and now-playing displays to your live stream using the playout.video composition editor. Introduction The Composition Editor is playout.video's built-in visual editor for creating overlay-rich video segments for your live stream. You can add logos, text, audio visualizers, now-playing displays, and more: all without any design software or technical skills. Compositions are standalone media items that combine background content with overlay elements. Once created, you add them to your stream's playlist alongside regular videos. When a composition plays in your stream, all overlays are rendered together into the final output. One of the most powerful workflows is editing directly from playlist items while your stream is running. From a playlist item's Edit button, you can: edit an existing composition and save a new version, or edit a video in the composition editor and save it as a new composition that replaces that video item in the playlist. In both cases, you can push updates to the live stream without stopping playback. What Is a Composition? A composition is a visual layout that combines multiple overlay elements on a canvas. Think of it as a design template for a segment of your stream. For example: A lo-fi music composition: background image + audio visualizer + now-playing display + channel logo A starting soon composition: branded background + countdown text + social media handles A intermission composition: background video loop + "Be right back" text + logo Compositions live in your media library just like videos. You can reuse them across multiple streams and playlists. Accessing the Composition Editor There are several ways to open the composition editor: From the Media Library Go to Files in the main navigation Click the Create button Select Composition Choose a name and aspect ratio The editor opens so you can add overlays before saving During Stream Creation When creating a new live stream, you can add compositions to your playlist if we select multiple audio, video or image items. 2. Click Add Content and pick audios, videos and images from your library 3. The editor opens inline so you can design your composition as part of the stream setup Pick a video and audio, click Add Composition editor pops up From the Playlist Open your stream's management page Go to the Playlist tab Find the item you want to change Click the playlist item's Edit button If it's a composition item, the composition opens in edit mode 6. If it's a video item, the composition editor opens in video-edit mode This is the recommended path when your stream is already live and you need fast on-the-fly overlay updates. Dedicated Editor Page Each composition has its own editor page at /composition/{compositionId}. You can navigate there directly from any composition link in the app. Overlay Types The editor sidebar provides access to all overlay types. Click an icon to open its panel, then add elements to the canvas. Video Add video clips as overlay layers on your composition: Click Video in the sidebar Browse or search for video content Click to add the video to the canvas Position and resize by dragging Videos play as part of the composition's timeline. You can trim their start and end points using the timeline editor at the bottom of the canvas. Image Add your channel logo, watermark, or any image: Click Image in the sidebar Upload an image or select from available stock images Position it on the canvas by dragging Resize by dragging the corner handles Best practices: Use PNG with transparency for logos so the background doesn't show Place logos in a corner where they won't obstruct important content Keep logos small enough to be visible without being distracting Text Add custom text for titles, announcements, or branding: Click Text in the sidebar Choose from text style presets or start with a blank text element Type your content and customize the appearance: font, size, color, background, and alignment Position and resize on the canvas Common uses: Channel name or tagline "Subscribe" reminder Schedule information Social media handles Audio Add background music or sound effects to your composition: Click Audio in the sidebar Upload audio files or browse available sounds Adjust volume and timing on the timeline Audio overlays play alongside any video content in the composition. Audio Visualizer The audio visualizer creates a dynamic visual representation of your composition's audio, perfect for music channels and lo-fi streams: Click Visualizer in the sidebar Choose a visualizer style Customize colors to match your branding Position and resize on the canvas The visualizer reacts to the audio playing in the composition, creating an engaging visual experience for viewers. Ideal for: Lo-fi music streams Podcast streams Ambient/relaxation channels Any stream where audio is the primary content Now Playing Show viewers what's currently playing: Click Now Playing in the sidebar Configure the display style (text format, font, colors) Position on the canvas The Now Playing overlay displays track information, which is especially useful for music channels where viewers want to know what song is playing. Working with the Canvas Aspect Ratios The composition editor supports multiple aspect ratios to match your streaming needs: 16:9 (Landscape): standard for YouTube, Twitch, and most platforms 9:16 (Portrait/Vertical): ideal for TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts 1:1 (Square): works well for Instagram and Facebook The aspect ratio is set when you create the composition and should match your stream's aspect ratio for the best results. Timeline The timeline at the bottom of the editor controls when each overlay appears and disappears during the composition's playback: Drag overlay bars to change when they appear Resize bars to change how long they're visible Layer order in the timeline corresponds to the visual stacking order on the canvas Layering Overlays are stacked in layers. Elements added later appear on top of earlier ones. You can: Reorder layers to control which elements appear in front Show/hide layers to temporarily disable overlays without deleting them Preview The editor includes a preview that shows how your composition will look with all overlays applied. Use this to fine-tune positioning and timing before saving. Versioning Every time you save a composition, a new version is created. This means: You can load previous versions from the settings panel to revert changes Your stream continues using the version that was active when the playlist was last updated After editing a composition, you may need to update your stream's playlist for the changes to take effect Using Compositions in Your Stream Compositions are added to your stream just like videos: Open your stream's management page Go to the Playlist tab Click Add and select your composition from the media library Drag to reorder it within the playlist When the stream reaches a composition in the playlist, it renders all the overlays together and plays the result as a single video segment. The composition is rendered once and cached, so subsequent plays use the cached version for efficiency. Updating a Running Stream If you edit a composition while your stream is running: Open your stream's management page and go to Playlist On the composition item, click Edit Make your changes in the composition editor and save (this creates a new version) Return to the stream's management page The system detects that the composition has been updated Click Update Playlist to push the new version to the running stream The next time the composition plays, it will use the updated version This lets you iterate on overlays in real time without stopping or recreating the stream. Editing a Video Item as a Composition (from Playlist) You can also click Edit on a video item in the playlist: Open your stream's management page and go to Playlist On a video item, click Edit The composition editor opens with that video as the background layer Add overlays (text, logo, visualizer, now-playing, etc.) Click Save & Apply A new composition is created from your edit The playlist item is updated by replacing the original video item with the new composition at the same position If that item is currently playing, the system applies the change with smart timing so the transition is smooth for viewers. Tips for Great Overlays Keep It Clean Don't overcrowd the canvas with too many overlays Leave the main content area clear and visible Use 2-4 overlay elements maximum for a clean look Consistent Branding Use your brand colors across all text and overlay elements Keep your logo in the same position across compositions Use consistent fonts for a professional appearance Readability Make sure text is large enough to read on mobile devices Use contrasting colors (light text on dark backgrounds, or vice versa) Add a semi-transparent background behind text for better readability over video Performance Use optimized images (PNG for logos, JPG for backgrounds) Keep image file sizes reasonable (under 2MB for overlays) Shorter compositions render faster than very long ones Troubleshooting Overlay not showing on the stream? Make sure the overlay is visible (not hidden) in the editor Check that the overlay is positioned within the canvas area Save your composition and update the stream's playlist Composition changes not appearing on the stream? Open the composition from the playlist item's Edit button and save your changes After saving, go to the stream's management page Check if the playlist update badge is showing Click Update Playlist to push the new composition version I edited a video item, but I still see the original video in playlist Make sure you clicked Save & Apply (not just close) Confirm the save completed successfully in the editor Refresh the playlist view to verify the video item was replaced by a composition If needed, click Update Playlist to push the updated playlist to the running stream Image overlay looks blurry? Use a higher resolution source image For logos, use high-resolution PNG files Make sure you're not stretching a small image to a large size Audio visualizer not reacting? Verify that your composition has audio content (an audio or video overlay with sound) Check that the visualizer is properly configured and visible Text is hard to read? Add a background color behind the text Increase the font size Use a contrasting color combination Next Steps Best Practices for Overlay Design on Live Streams: detailed design tips Building and Managing Playlists: manage your stream content How to Create Your First 24/7 Live Stream: complete setup guide --- # Run a Live Poll on Your Stream URL: https://playout.video/help-center/interactive-games/run-a-live-poll Category: Interactive Games (kb) Published: 2026-10-12T12:00:00.000Z Tags: Tutorial, Live Studio, Poll, Interactive Ask your audience one question with up to six options. Viewers vote on their phones or in chat, and the results show live on a Poll board. What a poll does A live poll on stream asks your audience one question with 2 to 6 options. Viewers vote on their phones by scanning a QR code, or by typing in the stream's chat on YouTube, Twitch or Facebook. While voting is open, the board can show the results as live bars with percentages. When voting closes, the board lights up the winner. Polls are built in on every plan. They work well for anything the audience can decide or have an opinion on: the next game, the next song, which topic you take first, or a quick "what do you think?" before a guest answers. Before you start Set up the Live Studio with your destinations. A poll runs on every platform you stream to at once (see Multistreaming to Multiple Platforms at Once), but chat votes only count on YouTube, Twitch and Facebook. Check that you have an interactive stream left this month. See Interactive Streams and Player Limits by Plan. Only one game runs on a stream at a time. If a quiz is running, starting the poll asks you to end it. Set up the poll In the studio, add a board graphic. The built-in Poll board sample shows the question, live vote bars, a countdown, the vote count, the winner and the join QR code. You can also use your own graphic. Select the board, either on the canvas (the scene needs a Custom layout for that) or from the Graphics panel. Open its inspector and, under Content, choose Poll. Type your question. Add 2 to 6 options. Each can be up to 80 characters. Set the Voting time: anything from 10 to 600 seconds. The default is 60. Decide whether to show Results while voting (more on this below). Press Use this poll. The Poll board adapts to 16:9, 9:16 (vertical) and 1:1 and takes the scene's brand color and font. Run it from the Control panel Go live with the studio on, then open the Control panel in the studio's right rail. Press Open voting. Voting opens and the board starts its countdown. Voting closes when the timer runs out. To close it early, press Close voting. To ask the same question again, press Vote again: the poll starts fresh, and Open voting opens the new round. How people vote By phone. Viewers scan the QR code on the board, type a display name and tap an option. The Control panel also shows the phone page link and QR code, so you can paste the link in chat or in your stream description. In chat. On YouTube, Twitch and Facebook, viewers type the letter (A, B, C) or the option's text. Chat on Kick, TikTok and LinkedIn is not read, so viewers there vote by phone. Everyone gets one vote, whether they use a phone or chat. A viewer can change their vote until voting closes, and only their latest choice counts. For the full viewer side, see How Viewers Play Along on Their Phones or in Chat. Live results or hidden results Results while voting decides what the board shows during the vote. Setting The board shows Good for On Bars with percentages that move as votes come in Energy and a race between options. People like watching their pick pull ahead. Off Only the number of votes, until voting closes Honest answers and a reveal moment. Early leaders do not sway later voters. If the poll is a real decision (which charity you support this month, which guest you book), hiding the results keeps the vote fair. If it is for fun, live bars are more fun to watch. When voting closes The board lights up the winning option. If there is a tie, it lights every tied option. On phones, voters see the result bars and "Winner:" followed by the winning option. If the poll has a host, the host announces the result. An AI voice reads a short line with the winner, or you read it from the prompter. See Use an AI Host Voice in Your Live Games. Tips for better polls Make options short and clearly different. "Yes", "No" and "Maybe" are easy. Four long sentences that half overlap are not. Say the letters out loud. Chat voters type A, B or C, so reading "A for the red team, B for the blue team" helps. Give chat voters time. Chat viewers only see the question when their video shows it. If your stream runs with a long delay and many people vote in chat, give the poll a longer voting time. Act on the result. If the audience picks the next game, play it. A poll that changes nothing teaches people not to vote. Looking for questions to ask? Live Poll Ideas for Streamers has more than 30. --- # Run Your First Live Quiz on Stream URL: https://playout.video/help-center/interactive-games/run-your-first-live-quiz Category: Interactive Games (kb) Published: 2026-10-12T12:00:00.000Z Tags: Tutorial, Live Studio, Quiz, Interactive Set up a quiz in the Live Studio, put it on a Trivia board and run it from the Control panel while viewers answer on their phones or in chat. What you get A live quiz on stream is a game you run during a show in the Live Studio. You write the questions, a board puts them on screen, and viewers answer in two ways: On their phones. The board shows a QR code. Viewers scan it and answer on a web page, with no app and no account. In chat. Answers typed in the stream's chat count on YouTube, Twitch and Facebook. A correct answer earns points plus a speed bonus for answering fast, and a leaderboard follows each question. The quiz is built in on every plan. Before you start You need: A stream with the Live Studio and your destinations set up. New to the studio? Start with How to Run Your First Live Show With Guests. Your questions, typed in or pasted from a spreadsheet or CSV file (up to 500 per quiz). An interactive stream left on your plan this month. See Interactive Streams and Player Limits by Plan. Step 1: Add a Trivia board In the studio, add a board graphic. The built-in Trivia board sample shows the question, the choices, a countdown ring, the answer, the leaderboard and the join QR code. You can also use your own graphic. Select the board on the canvas (the scene needs a Custom layout for that) or from the Graphics panel. Open the board's inspector and, under Content, choose Quiz. The Trivia board adapts to 16:9, 9:16 (vertical) and 1:1, and takes the scene's brand color and font. Step 2: Add your questions Each question is either multiple choice or free text. Multiple choice has 2 to 6 choices, with the keys A to F. Mark which one is correct. Free text has a list of accepted answers. Add every form you are happy to accept, for example "NYC" and "New York City". Step 3: Set the timing and scoring Time per question can be 5 to 300 seconds (default 20). You can also give one question its own time, for a long question or a hard free text answer. Scoring has two modes: Mode What happens Until the first correct answer Players can keep answering and score once, on their first correct answer. A wrong guess costs time, not the question. First answer only A player's first answer is final. No second chances. By default the quiz moves on by itself: the answer shows for 8 seconds, then the leaderboard (the top 5 on the Trivia board) for 8 seconds, then the next question opens. Switch that off to set the pace yourself, for example to talk through each answer. When you are happy with it, press Use this quiz. Step 4: Run it from the Control panel A game runs while the studio is on. Go live, then open the Control panel in the studio's right rail. Button What it does Start quiz Opens the first question. Close answers Closes the current question before the timer runs out. Show leaderboard Moves from the answer to the leaderboard. Next question Opens the next question. Pause and Resume Hold the quiz (a question that is open closes first), then carry on. End quiz Ends the quiz. Play again Appears when the quiz is over, to run it again. Give people a minute to join before you press Start quiz. Leave the board up with its QR code and say out loud: "Scan the code, or type your answer in chat." The Control panel also shows the phone page link and QR code to paste into the chat or the stream description. How viewers answer On a phone, viewers type a display name (up to 24 characters) and tap their answers. In chat on YouTube, Twitch and Facebook, they type the letter (A, B, C), the choice's text, or the answer to a free text question. Chat on Kick, TikTok and LinkedIn is not read, so viewers there play by phone. Answers are judged by when they were given, not when they arrived, and the phone shows each question the moment it opens. So a phone player whose video runs 20 seconds behind still gets the full time. More in How Viewers Play Along on Their Phones or in Chat. Good to know One game at a time. Only one game runs on a stream. If you start a poll during the quiz, you are asked to end the quiz first. Players per game. Phone and chat players count together toward your plan's limit. When the game is full, new phones see "This game is full". Playing again costs nothing extra. Your first game opens a window (2 hours on Free, 24 hours on paid plans) that covers every game on the stream. Add a host if you like. An AI voice can read the questions and announce the winner, or you can host it yourself with a prompter. See Use an AI Host Voice in Your Live Games. Tips for a first quiz Keep it short. Eight to ten questions is plenty for a first run. Open with an easy one. The first question teaches people how to play. Make it something everyone gets right. Keep choices short. Short choices are easier to read on a phone and fit better on a vertical board. Related articles Run a Live Poll on Your Stream How to Host a Live Quiz on YouTube --- # Show a Google Sheet or Market Feed on Your Stream URL: https://playout.video/help-center/interactive-games/sheet-news-and-market-feed Category: Interactive Games (kb) Published: 2026-10-12T12:00:00.000Z Tags: Ticker, Live Data, Google Sheets, Graphics, Business On the Business plan, put the rows of a Google Sheet on a graphic one after another, or show live crypto prices with alerts and a market wrap read by the host. Two ways to put live data on screen The Business plan adds two kinds of content you can give a graphic in the Live Studio: Sheet: the rows of a published Google Sheet, shown one after another. When you edit the sheet, the screen updates by itself. Market feed: live crypto prices, or simulated prices, with alerts when a price crosses a level you set and a periodic market wrap read by the host. Neither is a game. Nobody plays along, so neither uses one of your plan's interactive streams. See Interactive Streams and Player Limits by Plan. Sheet: news tickers, schedules and scores A Google Sheet is a simple way to keep live stream graphics up to date without touching the studio during the show. Some uses: A news ticker. One headline per row. A producer adds rows as stories come in. A schedule. Today's sessions at a conference, the order of service at a church, the next acts at a festival stream. Scores. Results from a local tournament, typed into the sheet by someone at the scorer's table. Because edits reach the screen by themselves, the person updating the sheet does not need access to your studio. They only need edit access to the sheet. Set it up In Google Sheets, publish the sheet to the web: File, Share, Publish to web, and choose comma-separated values (CSV). Copy the link Google gives you. In the Live Studio, add the graphic that will show the rows, such as a ticker or a lower third. On Channel and up, the AI assistant can design a custom graphic from a prompt. Select the graphic, either on the canvas (the scene needs a Custom layout) or from the Graphics panel. Open its inspector and, under Content, choose Sheet. Paste the published link. Press Use this sheet. The sheet's columns are matched to the graphic's fields by name. If some do not match, Fix columns lets you map them. Tips for the sheet Keep rows short. Each row is on screen for a short time before the next one. One line of text per row reads best. Order the rows. Rows show one after another, so put them in the order you want them seen. Keep private data out. A sheet published to the web can be read by anyone with the link. Use a separate sheet with only what goes on air. Market feed: live prices with alerts A market feed puts prices on a graphic and keeps them moving. It can use: Live crypto prices, from Binance public trades. Simulated prices, which are not real market prices. They are useful for a rehearsal, a demo, or a show where the exact price does not matter. On top of the prices, a market feed gives you: Alerts. When a price crosses a level you set, an alert goes on screen. A periodic wrap. At regular intervals the host reads a short summary of the market. To set it up, select the graphic, open its inspector, choose Market feed under Content, add your symbols and alert levels, confirm the data licence, and press Use this market feed. The wrap is read by the show's host. If the host is an AI voice, it uses your AI voice minutes. On Business you can add your own OpenRouter key so the host speaks with that key and those minutes do not count, which matters for a feed that runs for hours. More in Use an AI Host Voice in Your Live Games. Prices on screen are information, not advice. If you run a finance stream, say so on screen and out loud. Good to know Business only. Sheet and Market feed are part of the Business plan. See the pricing page for what each plan includes. They run while the studio is on, like a quiz or a poll. They show on every destination. The graphic is part of the video, so it appears on every platform you send the stream to. See Multistreaming to Multiple Platforms at Once. Related articles Run Your First Live Quiz on Stream --- # Use an AI Host Voice in Your Live Games URL: https://playout.video/help-center/interactive-games/ai-host-voice Category: Interactive Games (kb) Published: 2026-10-12T12:00:00.000Z Tags: Voice, Poll, Quiz, Ai Host, Interactive Give your quiz or poll a host: an AI voice that reads the questions, calls time and announces the winner, or you, reading from a prompter. What the host does Every quiz and poll can have a host. The host speaks at the key moments of the game, so you do not have to read every question and call every result yourself. There are three choices: Host What happens No host The board runs the game on its own, with no spoken lines. AI voice A synthetic voice speaks short lines, and the same lines show as captions on the board. You, with a prompter You host the game yourself and read the prompts it gives you. You pick the host when you set up the quiz or poll in the board's inspector, under Host. What the AI host says The AI host speaks short scripted lines filled in with live facts from the game: the question, and how long a poll is open time's up, and the number of answers that came in the correct answer and the quiz leader the poll's winner, or a tie So viewers hear the kind of thing a game show host says between rounds: the question read out, time called, how many answers are in, who is ahead or who won. The AI host does not improvise. It does not chat with viewers, answer questions from the chat or make jokes about what someone typed. If you want banter, that part is still yours. Many shows work well with both: the AI voice reads questions and calls time, and you react to the answers. Captions and the AI voice label Every line the AI host speaks also shows as a caption on the board. Viewers watching with the sound off still get the question and the result. While an AI voice is used, the board shows an "AI voice" label, so your audience knows the voice is synthetic. It is still good practice to say so yourself at the start of the show, and to check the rules of the platforms you stream to about AI content. Language and voice Built-in host lines are in English and Spanish. Pick the language that matches your show. The phone page that viewers play on is in English either way. There are dozens of voices to choose from. Pick one that suits your format: a calm voice for a church youth quiz, a brighter one for a gaming stream. Voice minutes Every plan includes 10 minutes of AI voice a month. Lines are short, but they add up. A long quiz where the host reads every question uses minutes faster than a single poll. When the minutes run out, the host's lines keep showing as captions on the board, without audio, until your minutes renew. The game itself carries on as normal. On Business, a workspace can add its own OpenRouter key. The host then speaks with that key, and those minutes do not count toward the 10. See Interactive Streams and Player Limits by Plan for when minutes renew, and the pricing page for what each plan includes. Hosting it yourself with a prompter Choose You, with a prompter if you would rather be the voice of the show. You still get the structure: prompts with the same live facts the AI host would use, so you know what to say and when. Nothing is spoken for you, and no voice minutes are used. This is a good fit for teachers, pastors and presenters whose audience comes to hear them, and for shows where you want to riff on the answers. Tips Match the host to the format. A fast quiz benefits from a voice that reads every question and calls time. A poll about the next topic on a talk show may not need a host at all. Save minutes for the shows that matter. If you run several games a month, use the AI voice where it adds the most and a prompter or no host for the rest. Give the join instructions yourself. The host reads questions and results, but a quick "scan the code or answer in chat" from you at the start gets more people playing. Related articles Run Your First Live Quiz on Stream Run a Live Poll on Your Stream An AI Host for Live Game Shows --- # Interactive Streams and Player Limits by Plan URL: https://playout.video/help-center/interactive-games/interactive-streams-and-player-limits Category: Interactive Games (kb) Published: 2026-10-12T12:00:00.000Z Tags: Limits, Plans, Pricing, Interactive How many streams with games you can run each month, how many players can join one game, and how much AI voice each plan includes. The three limits Every plan includes interactive games (the built-in Quiz and Poll). What changes from plan to plan is: Interactive streams a month: how many streams can have games on them. Players per game: how many people can play in one game, on phones and in chat together. AI voice: how many minutes the AI host can speak. Limits by plan Plan Interactive streams a month Players per game AI voice Free 4 10 10 min Creator 20 100 10 min Channel 50 500 10 min Business 200 2,000 10 min, or your own key Enterprise Unlimited Unlimited 10 min, or your own key Free costs $0. Creator is $19 a month billed annually ($29 billed monthly), Channel is $39 a month billed annually ($49 monthly) and Business is $119 a month billed annually ($149 monthly). The full list of what each plan includes is on the pricing page. What counts as an interactive stream An interactive stream is not one game. It is a window of time on one stream. The first game you start on a stream opens the window. Every game on that stream inside the window is covered: Free: the window lasts 2 hours. A stream on Free stops after 2 hours anyway, so in practice it covers the whole stream. Paid plans: the window lasts 24 hours. Pressing Play again on a quiz, pressing Vote again on a poll, or starting a new game on the same stream inside the window costs nothing. A game started after the window has ended opens a new one and counts again. Examples A weekly quiz night on Creator. One quiz, two polls and a rematch on Friday night use 1 of your 20 interactive streams. Four Fridays a month use 4. A daily show on Free. One poll a day for four days uses all 4. On day five, you can stream as usual, but games will not start until the month renews. Two streams at the same time. Games on two different streams count as two interactive streams, one each. When the count renews On paid plans, the count renews with your subscription's billing month. If you were billed on the 14th, it renews on the 14th of each month, including on an annual plan. On Free it renews with the calendar month. When you set up a quiz or a poll, the board's inspector shows how many interactive streams you have left this month, or that games on this stream are already covered and until when. Players per game Phone players and chat players count together toward the players per game limit. On Creator, for example, that means up to 100 people in one game, whether they joined by scanning the QR code or by typing in YouTube, Twitch or Facebook chat. When a game is full, new phones see "This game is full". For how people join, see How Viewers Play Along on Their Phones or in Chat. AI voice minutes Every plan includes 10 minutes of AI voice a month. When they run out, the host's lines show as captions on the board, without audio, until the minutes renew. On Business, a workspace can add its own OpenRouter key: the host then speaks with that key, and those minutes do not count. More in Use an AI Host Voice in Your Live Games. What does not count Sheet and Market feed. These Business features show data on screen, but no viewers play, so they do not use an interactive stream. See Show a Google Sheet or Market Feed on Your Stream. Playing again inside the window. Covered, as above. The Free plan badge On Free, the phone page shows a small "Powered by Playout" badge. Paid plans do not show it. Related articles Run Your First Live Quiz on Stream --- # How Viewers Play Along on Their Phones or in Chat URL: https://playout.video/help-center/interactive-games/how-viewers-join-and-play Category: Interactive Games (kb) Published: 2026-10-12T12:00:00.000Z Tags: Poll, Quiz, Chat, Phone, Interactive Viewers join your quiz or poll by scanning a QR code, with no app or account, or by typing in chat on YouTube, Twitch and Facebook. Here is what they see. Two ways to play When you run a quiz or a poll in the Live Studio, viewers can play along in two ways, and you do not have to choose between them: On a phone. They scan the QR code on the board and play on a web page. In chat. They type their answer in the stream's chat on YouTube, Twitch or Facebook. Both kinds of players go into the same game, the same leaderboard and the same vote count. Playing on a phone This is what a viewer does: Point the phone's camera at the QR code on the board and open the link. Type a display name, up to 24 characters. That is the name that shows on the leaderboard. Wait for the game to start. When a question opens, the phone shows it (or the poll's options) with a countdown. Tap an answer. After the question closes, the phone shows the result. There is no app to install, no account and no sign-up. The game runs in the phone's browser, and the phone page is in English. For a poll, a viewer can tap a different option until voting closes. When it closes, the phone shows the result bars and "Winner:" followed by the winning option. Sharing the link without the QR code Not everyone watches on a TV or a laptop. Someone watching on their phone cannot scan a code on the same screen. For them, the Control panel in the studio shows the phone page link and its QR code. Paste the link into the chat, pin it if your platform lets you, or put it in the stream description. Each game has its own link, and it expires after 48 hours. Share the link for the game you are running, not one from an earlier stream. Playing in chat On YouTube, Twitch and Facebook, answers typed in the stream's chat count. Multiple choice questions and polls: type the letter (A, B, C) or the text of the option. Free text questions: type the answer. Chat on Kick, TikTok and LinkedIn is not read. If you multistream to those platforms, tell viewers there to scan the code or open the link instead. Multistreaming to Multiple Platforms at Once explains how to add each destination. Why phones are fairer with stream delay Every live stream runs a little behind real time. Some viewers are a few seconds behind; others, on a slow connection or a high latency setting, can be much further back. Answers are judged by when they were given (the moment of the tap, or the time of the chat message), not by when they arrived. On top of that, the phone shows each question the moment it opens, whatever the viewer's video is doing. So a viewer whose video is 20 seconds behind still gets the whole answer window on their phone. Chat players see the question only when their video shows it. If their video is 20 seconds behind, they have 20 seconds less to answer. That is fine for a poll with a long voting time, but in a fast quiz it puts chat players at a disadvantage. If the result matters to your players, phone play is the fairer option. Phone Answers vs Chat Answers goes through the trade-offs. When a game is full Your plan sets how many players can join one game, and phone and chat players count together. When a game is full, new phones see "This game is full". See Interactive Streams and Player Limits by Plan for the numbers on each plan. What happens to answers Players do not create an account. The phone page asks for a display name and nothing else about them. Answers are kept for up to 7 days, and the phone page tells players so. If something is not working The QR code will not scan. Share the link in chat or in the stream description instead. An old link no longer works. Links expire after 48 hours. Share the link from the Control panel for the game that is running now. Chat answers are not counting. Check that the viewer is in YouTube, Twitch or Facebook chat, and that they typed a letter, an option's text or, for a free text question, the answer. A viewer sees "This game is full". The game has reached your plan's players per game. Related articles Run Your First Live Quiz on Stream Run a Live Poll on Your Stream --- # Change Your Twitch Title and Category With Each Video URL: https://playout.video/help-center/destinations-and-platforms/twitch-title-and-category-per-video Category: Destinations & Platforms (kb) Published: 2026-09-23T12:00:00.000Z Tags: Playlists, Destinations, Automation, Twitch Let a 24/7 Twitch stream switch its title, category and tags every time a new video starts, without restarting the stream or touching Twitch yourself. What this does A 24/7 Twitch channel that plays a mix of games has a problem: Twitch lists the channel under one category, and it only changes when you change it. If your playlist moves from Fortnite to Minecraft at 3 a.m., the channel keeps sitting in the Fortnite directory with a Fortnite title. With Title and category turned on, playout.video changes the channel's title, category and (if you want) tags each time the next video starts. The stream itself does not restart or drop. Viewers stay, the stream stays live, and only the listing changes. It runs on our servers, so your computer can be off, and it works on every plan. Before you start You need: A stream with a playlist of videos. A Twitch destination on that stream, using a connected Twitch channel. See Connecting Streaming Platforms if you have not added one yet. Permission from Twitch to change the channel's title and category. Channels connected before this feature need to be reconnected once. Twitch asks for a separate permission to edit stream info, and older connections did not ask for it. The settings dialog tells you when this is needed and links to the channel page. Click Reconnect, sign in to Twitch, and accept the new permission. Your destinations keep working as before. Turn it on Open your stream and click the Twitch icon in the right-hand panel. It appears once the stream has a Twitch destination. Switch on Change with each video. Click Settings to set a title (see below), and Set categories to pick a category for each video. You can also reach the same settings from the Twitch destination's ⋯ menu, under Title and category.... The next time a new video starts, Twitch updates about five seconds later. If the stream is already live when you save, the current video's title and category are sent within half a minute. Pick a category for each video The dialog lists every video in the stream's playlist. Next to each one is a category picker that searches Twitch's own list, the same one you see under Edit Stream Info on Twitch. Type a few letters of the game ("fortn", "brawl", "left 4") and pick it. A video's category saves the moment you pick it, and it belongs to the video, not the stream. If you use the same video in another stream, it already has its category there. Category for videos without one is the fallback. Leave it empty and a video without a category leaves the channel's category as it is. Write a title template The Title field is a template. Two variables do most of the work: Variable Becomes {{title}} The video's title {{game}} The video's Twitch category Some examples: {{title}}: just the video's title. 24/7 | {{game}} | {{title}}: becomes "24/7 | Minecraft | Building a Castle". {{game}} all day, every day: {{title}} The video's title comes from its metadata. For imported videos that is the original title; for uploads it is the file name without the extension. You can edit it on the video's page under Metadata. The other metadata variables work here too, including your own custom fields such as {{episode}}. Each row in the video list shows the title that video will get on Twitch, so you can check the template before saving. A few things happen automatically: Empty parts are tidied up. If a video has no category, 24/7 | {{game}} | {{title}} becomes "24/7 | Building a Castle", not "24/7 | | Building a Castle". Long titles are shortened. Twitch allows 140 characters. Anything longer is cut and ends with "...". A title is never empty. If the template renders to nothing, the video's own title is used. Tags (optional) Switch on Change tags too to replace the channel's tags as well. Each video can have its own tags; a video without any gets the default tags you enter in the dialog. Twitch's rules for tags apply: up to 10, up to 25 characters each, letters and numbers only. We clean tags up to fit, so "Battle Royale" becomes "BattleRoyale". Leave tags off and the channel keeps the tags it has. The Twitch panel The Twitch panel beside your stream shows how the channel looks on Twitch and what happens next: On Twitch now is read from Twitch itself: the title, category and tags viewers see, whoever set them. Click Edit to change them by hand, the same as Edit Stream Info on Twitch. With the switch on, your edit stays until the next video starts. Now playing and Up next show the video on air and the one after it, each with its category and the title it sends. Pick a category right there if one is missing. At the end of a shuffled playlist the next video is not known yet, because the order is shuffled again first. Video categories counts how many videos have a category and opens the full list. If the stream sends to more than one Twitch channel, pick the destination at the top of the panel. You can also open your Twitch channel or dashboard and watch the title change as the playlist moves on. When something goes wrong A failed update never affects the stream. Video keeps going to Twitch whatever happens to the title. The permission is missing or was revoked. You get a notification and the dialog asks you to reconnect the channel. Changes resume as soon as you do. Twitch refuses the category or a tag. The title still changes, and the dialog says which part Twitch refused. The next video tries again with everything. Twitch is having trouble. We retry, waiting a little longer each time, up to every ten minutes. Good to know Changes only happen while the Twitch destination is live. A stopped destination is left alone. Edits on Twitch hold until the next video. If you change the title on Twitch by hand, it stays until the playlist moves on. Stopping it: switch off Change with each video and save. The channel keeps whatever title and category it has at that moment. Other playlists count too. If the calendar plays a different playlist for a while, those videos get their own categories. Videos that are not in the stream's main playlist show up in the list while they are playing. Related articles Connecting Streaming Platforms Building and Managing Playlists Importing Videos from Social Media How to Create Your First 24/7 Live Stream Running a gaming channel around the clock? Set a category on your first few videos and let the playlist do the rest. --- # How to Delete Your Account URL: https://playout.video/help-center/account-and-billing/how-to-delete-your-account Category: Account & Billing (kb) Published: 2026-09-18T12:00:00.000Z Tags: Privacy, Billing, Account Delete your playout.video account yourself from Account settings: where the button is, how the confirmation works for password and Google sign-ins, and exactly what is removed. Delete it yourself, in the app You do not need to write to support to close your account. The control is in the app and it works right away. Open Settings → Account and stay on the Profile tab. Scroll to Danger Zone at the bottom. Click Delete Account. Type your email address exactly as it appears on the account, to confirm. Confirm who you are. If you signed up with a password, enter it, and the account is deleted immediately. If you signed in with Google, we email you a confirmation link instead; click it to finish. That link is valid for one hour, and it is worth checking your spam folder if it does not arrive. When it is done you land on a goodbye page and you are signed out everywhere. This cannot be undone. There is no grace period and no restore. If you only want to stop paying, cancel the subscription instead and keep the account. What gets deleted Your profile, your sign-in methods and your sessions are removed. For every workspace where you are the only owner: The subscription is cancelled immediately in Stripe. Running streams are stopped, and the playouts are deleted along with their schedules and restream targets. The connected channels (YouTube, Twitch, Kick and the rest) are disconnected and removed. Every file in the media library is deleted from storage: uploads, recordings, playlists and compositions built on them. The workspace itself is closed. For workspaces you share with another owner, nothing is deleted. You are removed from the member list and everyone else carries on with the content intact. Before you delete Are you the only owner of a workspace your team uses? Deleting your account deletes that workspace, and everyone in it loses access to the streams and the media. To hand it over instead, go to Settings → Team, change another member's role to Owner, and then delete your account. The workspace and its content stay exactly as they are. Do you want any of your media? Download what you want to keep first. Files are removed from storage as part of the deletion and we cannot get them back for you afterwards. Do you have a billing question? The subscription is cancelled immediately, not at the end of the period, and closing the account does not by itself issue a refund. If you think a refund is owed, ask us before you delete, from Help → Contact support. Once the account is gone there is no workspace left to credit. What we can and cannot refund is set out in the Refund Policy. If you cannot reach the button You need to be signed in to delete your own account. If you cannot sign in, or the deletion does not complete, contact us from the help center or write to support@playout.video from the address on the account, and say what you tried. We will verify who you are and take it from there. Frequently Asked Questions Can support delete my account for me? Normally we will point you at the Danger Zone, because doing it yourself is immediate and does not need you to wait for a reply. We step in when you cannot get to it: no access to the sign-in address, or the deletion itself failing. Can the assistant delete my account? No. The assistant has no tool that closes an account, on purpose. It will show you where the button is. Does deleting my account cancel my subscription? Yes, immediately, for any workspace where you are the only owner. Workspaces with another owner keep their own billing. I only want to leave a workspace, not close my account. Ask an owner of that workspace to remove you from Settings → Team. Your account and anything you own elsewhere are untouched. What about my data, not my account? A copy of your personal data, or erasure of records that survive the account, is a separate request. Send it from Help → Contact support and say plainly that it is a data request: those have a deadline on our side and are handled by a person whatever your plan. What happens to my support requests? They are kept. A support thread has to outlive the account, otherwise the record that we answered you disappears with it. The contents can be erased on request; see the previous answer. Can I sign up again with the same email? Yes. It is a new account with nothing in it; the old workspaces and media do not come back. Related Articles How to Contact Support and What to Expect Managing Your Team and Permissions Understanding Plans and Pricing --- # How to Contact Support and What to Expect URL: https://playout.video/help-center/getting-started/how-to-contact-support-and-what-to-expect Category: Getting Started (kb) Published: 2026-09-11T12:00:00.000Z Tags: Account, Support, Getting Started Where to reach the playout.video team, what to include, how fast each plan gets an answer, and how to follow a request after you send it. Three ways to get help Search the help center. Most questions about streams, playlists, channels and billing are answered in an article. Open Help in the sidebar and search, or browse the help center. Ask the assistant. The AI assistant can see your streams, media and channels and answers right away. When it cannot resolve something, it offers to hand the conversation to a person and files the request for you. Contact support. From Help choose Contact support, or write to support@playout.video. Either way you get a reference such as PV-7K4M2QX9 and an email copy. What to include Tell us what you expected, what happened instead, and when. Stream names and the time of day help us find the right logs. When you use the form inside the app we already attach the page you were on and the stream you were looking at, so you do not have to describe where. For billing questions, include the email on the account. If you are asking about a charge or a refund, the Refund Policy sets out how we handle them, including what happens to your access when we refund. Closing your own account does not need a request at all: it is a button in Settings → Account, see How to Delete Your Account. For a copy of your data, or erasure of what survives the account, say so plainly; those requests carry a fixed deadline on our side. Response times by plan Targets count London business hours, Monday to Friday, 09:00 to 18:00. Plan Channels First response Free Help center, assistant, contact form, email No target Creator and Channel The same four 1 business day Business and Enterprise Also live chat, priority queue 4 business hours A request filed on Friday evening with a 4 hour target is answered by Monday noon. A response time is part of what a paid plan buys. On the free plan we still read everything that reaches us and you still get a reference and a thread to follow, but there is no target and no promise about when. The help center and the assistant are there whatever the plan, and they answer right away. Following a request Every request has a page under Help with the full conversation. Replying there or replying to any email on the request adds to the same thread. When we answer you get an email and an in-app notification. A request we have answered stays open for a week. If we do not hear back it closes on its own; replying reopens it with the same reference. Asking the assistant about a request You can ask the assistant "any news on my request?" and it lists your requests with their status. --- # Timing Overlays in a Template: When to Show and the Preview Timeline URL: https://playout.video/help-center/overlays-and-editor/timing-overlays-in-a-template-when-to-show Category: Overlays & Editor (kb) Published: 2026-09-03T19:37:45.863Z Tags: Tutorial, Overlays, Overlay Templates How overlay templates decide when each layer appears on videos of any length: the When to show options, the preview timeline, previewing on a real video, and the base media placeholder. The Problem a Template Has to Solve A normal composition has a fixed length, so "show the logo from 0:05 to 0:20" means something. An overlay template does not: it will be applied to a 40-second clip and a two-hour archive alike. So a template describes timing relative to the video it lands on, and the editor previews that description against a stand-in of a length you choose, or against a real video from your library. This guide covers the three pieces: the When to show setting on each overlay, the preview timeline, and the base media placeholder. When to Show Select any overlay in a template and the side panel shows When to show. The options: Throughout the entire video. Visible from the first frame to the last. The default for new overlays, and right for logos and frames. During the intro. Visible from the start for the length you set. Title cards, episode names, "starting soon" text. During the outro. Visible for the last N seconds of the video, whatever its length. Subscribe reminders, end cards, credits. At a specific time. Starts at a fixed time and lasts for the length you set. A sponsor card at 5:00, a lower third at 0:30. Periodically. Visible for N seconds, hidden for M seconds, repeating until the video ends, with an optional start offset. A recurring "follow us" bug or a Now Playing that surfaces every few minutes. Use absolute timeline (advanced). Ignores the video's length and uses the overlay's fixed position on the timeline. Rarely what you want in a template; it exists for compositions that are converted into templates. When you change the option, the playhead jumps to where the overlay now appears, so the canvas shows the result immediately. The Preview Timeline The timeline under the canvas shows the template as if applied to a video of a chosen length. The header reads Preview as 2 minutes by default; switch it to 30 seconds, 10 minutes, or 1 hour to see how your timing stretches or shrinks. Every overlay is drawn from its When to show setting: When to show On the timeline Throughout A bar across the whole item During the intro A band at the start During the outro A band at the end At a specific time A bar at that time Periodically A bar from the offset to the end, showing the repeating windows The ruler is real time on the preview item, so a 15-second outro on a two-minute preview sits at 1:45 to 2:00. The numbers are a preview: the same template on a one-hour video puts that outro at 59:45. Dragging to change timing Drag the free edge of a bar and the When to show setting updates: Drag the end of an intro band to change how long the intro lasts. Drag the start of an outro band to change how long the outro lasts. Drag an at a specific time bar to move it, or either edge to change its length. Drag the start of a periodic bar to change its start offset. Its on and off lengths are set in the panel. Edges that follow the video are locked and have no handle: the start of an intro, the end of an outro, both ends of a throughout overlay. They move with the video, not with you. Dragging never changes the template's fixed frame numbers. It changes the When to show setting, which is the only timing a template carries into playback. Preview on a Real Video A synthetic length answers "does the timing work at two minutes?" A real video answers "does this template look right on this footage?" To use one: Open the Preview as menu in the timeline header and choose Choose a video..., or select the base media and click Preview with a video in the side panel, or double-click the base media on the canvas. Pick a video from your library. The header changes to Preview with